What Is Early Word? The Philadelphia Inquirer's experimental online "morning show&quot, which began in Sept. 2005, went on hiatus in the summer of 2006, after a gradual shift to putting more of its content directly on Philly.com.

Oregon Ticket Wins Powerball JackpotBut Mega Millions Is Also Huge ... and Spooky?Somebody who bought a ticket in Oregon had last night's winning Powerball numbers: 7, 21, 43, 44 and 49, plus the Powerball of 29. The payout's a Powerball record: a $340 million annuity, or $164 million cash. Ten Pennsylvania tickets are worth a cool $853,492 for matching the first five numbers but not the Powerball. Usually that combination wins $200,000 but officials beefed it up with bonus money, letting it grow for this drawing.

Lucky devils. Sixty tickets in my pool, and none won even $3 for having the Powerball.

Now check out what's going on in Jersey, especially you Lost fans. The Mega Millions jackpot is up to $108 million. That's not only huge, 108 eerily coincides with a lottery-related plotline on the ABC hit "Lost." A corpulent character named Hurley (pictured) won a gigundo jackpot playing 4, 8, 15, 16, 23 and 42. These numbers keep reappearing on the show, most recently as a sequence needed to stave off an imagined catastrophe. Here's where 108 shows up: That code has be typed on a computer every 108 minutes. Also, notice that 4, 8, 15, 16, 23 and 42 add up to 108.

Nonsense? Let's hope so. Those numbers brought misfortune to Hurley and all sorts of people around him. And yet hundreds of people played them in last week's Powerball.